Health Canada’s new study on Wind Turbine and Noise

Noise and infrasound disturbance linked to wind turbines continue to get media coverage in an increasing number of markets and is used widely as an argument against wind power by anti-wind groups to amplify negative messaging. Health Canada released a summary of a new study at the beginning of November which concludes that there is no evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to wind turbine noise and self-reported medical illnesses and health conditions.

See CanWEA’s statement on Health Canada’s study here:

The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) welcomes new research by Health Canada, a summary of which concludes that there is no evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to wind turbine noise and self-reported medical illnesses and health conditions.

Specifically, the Health Canada study finds:

No evidence to support a link between exposure to wind turbine noise and any of the self-reported illnesses and chronic conditions

No association between multiple measures of stress and exposure to wind turbine noise

No association between wind turbine noise and self-reported or measured sleep quality

No association between wind turbine noise and any significant changes in reported quality of life, or with overall quality of life, and satisfaction with health.

The study did find a correlation, but not a causal relationship, between increasing levels of wind turbine noise and annoyance. The Health Canada summary identified a number of other factors that may contribute to annoyance levels, including economic benefit, visual appearance and noise sensitivity.

“Based on the summary, the Health Canada study is an important new addition to scientific research on wind turbines and human health. We look forward to reviewing the results of the Health Canada study in more detail and will continue to monitor the scientific literature in this area,” says Hornung. “The balance of scientific evidence to date continues to show that properly sited wind turbines are not harmful to human health and that wind energy remains one of the safest and environmentally friendly forms of electricity generation.” For more information here.